This is the blog of Nader Elhefnawy, established in October 2008.
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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

New and Noteworthy (Ridley Scott, Charles Stross, Sanctuary Canceled)

In today's edition:

* Blastr's overview of Ridley Scott's recent interview with Esquire, in which he shared his thoughts on, among other things, the actualities of space travel, and in particular, the existence of extraterrestrial life, and of course, his upcoming film Prometheus (out this Friday), which deals with both those themes. (The spoiler-shy might want to skip it, however, as there is some discussion of lines and scenes from the movie.)

* Charles Stross offers his remarks on the celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's sixtieth anniversary on the throne. They are brief, and about what readers familiar with his work and his politics would expect, but for all that a refreshing alternative to the general run of fawning commentary in the press. (I, for one, can't help being struck by the sheer inauspiciousness of this moment of economic crisis for a celebration that is, essentially, a legacy of - one might as well use Thorstein Veblen's phrase - "an inferiority complex with benefit of clergy.")

* Syfy Channel announced the cancellation of Sanctuary on May 21. I have to admit I was not particularly impressed with it when it first appeared (the writing was generic, the visuals off-putting), but it improved as it went along, and though it never became essential or ground-breaking (except at the marketing and technical levels, given its origin in a web series and its uses of green screen and REM technology in the production), it was probably its most entertaining show of the past three or four years, and one of the channel's very few offerings for hardcore science fiction fans in the post-Farscape era.